This is a collection of articles dealing with organic gardening, ecology, environmental restoration, news items of interest, travel and just about anything else I find of interest and willing to share with others around the globe. - ENJOY!

Saturday, April 29, 2017

Sorry, perhaps I should make a correction in the post's title, "The World's new version of normalAbnormal."

educateinspirechange.org

Image by Katie Nagy

Well, every once in a while, something comes out that brings back a sense of what most consider normalcy. We live in a perverted degenerate world of counter-protesters on steroids. But not long ago, a first grade teacher from North Haven, Connecticut, Mrs. Nagy wrote that beautiful letter to her students the day after the 2016 Presidential election that they read aloud in class. She thenposted it to Facebook, where more than 40,000+ people have shared it. The goal of course was to help the students understand and appreciate that very important decision-making is far from being a job exclusive to a President of the United States or any other leader of any country. Today it's become hip, chic, or in vogue to disrespect a leader if he or she doesn't meet your own personal flavourite worldview. In reality the biggest decision-making job has always been every person on the planet. The old biblical text that says, "If possible, as far as it depends on you, be peaceable with all men," hasn't exactly been practiced in decades. Everyone's small choices and actions combined are what make any society. Nobody is prevented or forced away from showing compassion to famile friends and neighbours. Anybody can help the needy, or cooperate with your fellow brothers and sisters for a better community and world. Nobody is stopping any parent from raising their children with wisdom, love, and compassion so that they become better stewards of the Earth. I wonder how many parents did what Mrs. Nagy did the day after that election ? From watching the News Media headline stories ever since, I highly doubt many have. Take this ABC News headline just after the election:

In an attempt to report on the negative atmosphere since this past election and reactions from the hispanic community of Los Angeles, the ABC reporter interviewed one man who gave an opinion which was probably the exact opposite of what they had expected to find out on the streets of L.A. Fortunately for all of us, they actually published what he said. The 81 year-old Mr Rudolph Anparano who they interviewed in a parking lot has no political beliefs. In fact he is politically neutral. Often times in today's climate of "If you are not for us you, then you are against us," such a position of neutrality can be risky to admit in a hostile environment. Yet Mr Anparano doesn't really care which man or woman gets elected, wins or loses. Respect should be given to any country's office of authority. Here was his response when asked about the newly elected President Trump:

As a Jehovah's Witness (Testigos de Jehová), 81-year-old Rudolph Anparano said he believes people should "respect superior authorities" when it comes to the president of the United States.

"Nothing I hear today is any different than I heard in my youth," Anparano said.

Anparano and his parents were born in the United States, but his grandparents are from Spain.

There's no getting away from this ugly subject anymore. Everyone seems to have opposing opinions and will threaten anyone who doesn't hold to the same ideological worldview. Even many of today's non-profit environmental groups are run by prosyletizing Ideologues who are more interested in politicking than teaching and educating people to love and respect Nature. I've personally pulled far away now from many of these so-called eco-institutions because their basic message of promoting love for Nature has degenerated into some kind of perverted murderous hatred of those whose worldview of things differ from ther own. This is the biggest problem with the so-called "Free-Thought Movent," where if your free thoughts don't jive with the prevailing Orthodoxy's version of free thinking, then you immediately identified by the Thought Police and arefingerpointed out & demonized as unfit to associate with.People have got to stop wasting their hard earned money by donating to these organizations whose basic mission is nothing more than Sue & Settle. If you really investigate many of them, very little ecology or restoration work is ever actually physically accomplished by most of these folks. One leader of one ecology group went from being arrested for shop-lifting hiking boots at a Walmart in 1994 to earning $200,000+ a year salary today. His secret to success ? "Sue & Settle." Children don't need this type of negative influence from mentors. Unfortunately all around the globe the inexperience of youth has always been the main target of those obsessed with obtaining power and control. The infamous Abbie Hoffman is known for his infamus saying, “Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.” His legacy lives large and long on today's High Schools & College Campuses. So when a teacher like Mrs. Nagy comes along with a positive message of taking the power of responsible decision making upon oneself and encouraging kids to have healthy respect for others, it's a refreshing thing to behold. The key here is getting to youth early in life. Both sides are aware of that. Children need healthy clean outdoor activity and responsible adults (particularly parents) need to be the ones instilling the basic fundamentals of spiritual qualities like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol. Academia gave up on these qualities decades ago. You will not find many teachers like Mrs. Katie Nagy encouraging students to be respectful and kind to others irrespective of differences the way she has in most of today's elementary Schools, High Schools or other higher institutions of learning (Universities, Colleges, etc). One can only hope the parents of those kids when they go back home reinforce what Mrs. Katie Nagy encouraged from her class. As one environmental lawyer admitted, Science for the most part when it comes to a discipline for finding ultimate truth has been disappointing. Parents, that should be your cue. 😉

Friday, April 28, 2017

Ever wonder about the health and cleanliness of some of the Produce grown in poorer nations shipped to industrial nation grocery stores & sold to you ???

(Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)

"In this April 1, 2017 photo, day laborers
harvest broccoli grown with wastewater, near Mixquiahuala, Hidalgo
state, Mexico. Farmers in the Mezquital Valley use untreated sewage from
Mexico City to water and fertilizer their crops. “Our life comes from
these waters. It is the sustenance,” says farmer Don Justino Lopez of
Tepatepec."

Anyone familiar with the New River which flows northward out of Mexico's Baja California at Mexicali, then you know how horrifically contaminated that water is as it makes it's way to the slowly dying Salton Sea. Been that way for decades without solutions. Now can you imagine Imperial Valley farm produce being irrigated with that filthy disgusting New River water ? Yet down near Mexico City's population of 20+ million and all the raw sewage they generate, they also apparently are incapable of cleaning up their sewer water which has been an ongoing problem for most Mexican cities. It's loaded with massive amounts of synthetic chemicals and the putrid filthy human and animal fecal matter which the farmers apparently want within the water, because it's loaded with plant fertilizing nutrients (which they don't have to buy from industrial Agro-Chemical Companies) for growing lots of produce. As sick as that sounds, that's exactly the way they like things. The Farmers themselves who irrigate with this putrid wastewater also face health risks, including roundworm and other parasite infections. Their families, especially their children are even more vulnerable to diarrheal disease and salmonella. This includes most of the produce which may be contaminated by this filth which heads back to Mexico City to be sold in street markets back to the public. Many of the Mezquital Valley farmers downplay the health risks, claiming that generations of families have never suffered ill effects. In fact they often wash their hands in the brown water before settling down to eat lunch in the fields. One 89 year-old farmer they interviewed, Manuel Ortega, said he was raised on leafy greens, beans and zucchini grown here. He jokingly laughed and said,

"It never gave me the runs"

You can read for yourselves the rest of the story about this raw sewage being used as Mexico's answer to sustainable agriculture.

"Mexico City's water crisis – from source to sewer" The Guardian Nov 2015

Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Sabino Juarez Corona and other activists protesting against sewage outflows from Mexico City in the agricultural Tula valley. ‘The city sends us pollution and we send it back in the food,’ says Juarez.

This photo and quote above are from an earlier article about Mexico city's water and sewer problem by the Guardian in November 2015. So this recent bizarre exposure is not just something only now being revealed. Here is that full article now. Very spooky!

Imperial Valley's own water contamination Crisis from Mexico to Farms to Salton Sea

San Diego Union Tribune April 2014

Ann Johansson for The New York Times

This subject should remind many of Imperial Valley's New River coming from Mexicali Mexico to the Salton Sea which has always been hotly debated topic for literally decades. Many environmentalists have been protesting how something needs to be done to save the Salton Sea which has been lowering it's lake level in recent years because irrigation water has been sold to San Diego County by Imperial Irrigation District. Now there is less traditional farming which has been replaced by massive Industrial Solar Farms. This translates as less drainage water being funneled north into the Salton Sea. But the main problem for wildlife has always been about the filth being dumped in both New & Alamo Rivers aside from the synthetic science-based junk from industrial agriculture which will never stop. Even with more water the Salton Sea has no chance because of the insane amount of pollutants dumped into it over decades. It's also a sickening health hazzard for migrants moving north by swimming in this New River's toxic soup. Good video below.

The Mexican polluted water problem does not end here at the Imperial Valley either.

Tijuana's sewage fouls shoreline from Imperial Beach to Coronado at staggering rate every year San Diego Tribune - April 2017

"After prolonged drought in the region, rains flooded Tijuana from December through February, causing massive amounts of sewage to flow into the Tijuana River, head north across the border and flush into the Pacific Ocean, fouling beaches all the way to Hotel del Coronado because of northward ocean currents."

The Tijuana River is a third example of Mexico's foul river failures. This is another one of those ongoing never ending dirty legacies that has no viable solution ever being found. In this silent video below, take a look at the massive scale with which such pollution spreads far out to sea to the west while also creeping both north and south for miles and miles. Again, spooky stuff folks!

People are going to have to look at who and what they are putting their faith and trust into now days. The recent March for Science was supposed to be about funding for science, but it was more of a political movement promoting one ideological worldview while demonizing another. As I've stated before, I frankly don't see differences between either side of an issue. Today we read a plethora of science articles about life on other planets, one day going to Mars and terraforming that planet for life. They have no clue how this planet biologically functions and lack viable solutions to restoring life here. However we are supposed to believe that science has answered all the important questions and that they need more funding for worthless disciplines like(Astrobiology) for seeking life on other worlds, but they still can't figure out Earth's biology. Why waste time and money on science fiction myth and fable funding when we have supposedly more important issues of climate change, deforestation, water and air pollution etc ??? Has anyone else ever truly seen real world solutions out there other than the speculative proposals and video animations provided as a form of clickbait entertainment on various electronic media sites ??? Again folks, start questioning the present worldviews being shoved down the public's collective throats these days. Also, be cautiously aware of non-profit environmental organizations who continually beg for you to fund their cause for the good fight. More and more of these are turning out to be scams for personal wealth by those who run them. At one time there were many such organizations who did good work, especially in educating the public. But those days are long gone. When you see them writing more about promoting one political ideology over another, then immediately jump ship before it sinks and takes you with it.

illustration - wrongkindofgreen.org

The above image captures the dreams and aspirations of 21st century's green version of anthropocentrism: solar, wind, wealth. Nature is virtually non-existent in the “climate factory” poster. It only floats in the background as a mere afterthought.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

The scene above is Toronto, Canada, 2010 G-20 Summit and the spectators, gawkers & other malcontents are recording the burning of a police car. This theme seems to be a common everyday occurence now being played out somewhere in our modern world and showing up on television or youtube. If these bad events weren't terrible enough on their own, another freaky phenomena is there are many wannbe citizen journalists out there who take time out from their selfies to be the first to record & publish some tragic occurence as it unfolds onto their flavourite social meda page. In fact this new perverted obsession has quickly become the latest hobby for those who are otherwise nature and outdoor challenged. It's bad enough that all of mankind are subjected to all manner of regular dirt from the conventional News outlets, but now the social networking sites offer a glimmer of hope to the average person wanting instant viral video fame. The total tonnage of riots and protests happening right now over every tiny little real or imagined social issue has caused many to want to be a part of the cultural experience. In this obsession to become a social media celebrity darling (even for a small moment), many people will participate in these violent protests, even to the point of going so far as to deliberately instigate a violent reaction from one of their oppsition protesters and/or police officers hopes of receiving some type of injury to be documented on video for the media. They view such an experience as a sort of twisted badge of honor. Suddenly becoming a victim provides a sort of status symbol among your imaginary social media friends & if you play your cards right, you might even find the right ambulance chasing lawyer & hit the Lotto. True we can't blame all this on electronic devices and social media outlets, but it certainly has helped to fan the flames of decadent behviour in our world and making things worse. Clever marketing hasn't exactly hurt either. It's kinda like how climate change has brought us extreme weather wind events that have brought us record breaking wildfires like the world has never seen before.

Then there is another issue of the type of subject content the film industry throws out there as entertainment. Most of it is garbage and doesn't exactly leave people walking away feeling good about themselves after watching. Interestingly, many modern day secular people out there generally claim to be skeptical about anything related to the subject about the supernatural and yet they have no problem allowing themselves to be addicted to entertainment loaded with the supernatural or violent junk the film industry spews out there. It isn't just Hollywood films, but also a variety of books, magazines, and video games which present war, sexual content or supernatural world as harmless fun. Some experts out there are now suggesting that the way TV shows and movies portray many of this subject matter is having strong influence what many people believe and how they conduct themselves. Watching the News and seeing the degraded decadent behaviour of many of these mass protesters all around the globe one has to wonder if maybe the experts are really on to something. But how can the average everyday decent person escape all this ? Since almost no one is willing to give up their precious electronic devices, maybe there's a proper way to put them to better use.

Finding more peaceful ways to use electronic devices wisely

Bill Mason's small Wanigan from "Waterwalker".

I stumbled quite by accident this 1984 feature-length documentary follows the naturalist Bill Mason on his journey by canoe into the Ontario wilderness. I had serious never seen this documentary or heard of this man before. The filmmaker and artist begins on Lake Superior, then explores winding and sometimes tortuous river waters to the meadowlands of the river's source. Along the way, Bill Mason paints scenes that capture his attention and muses about his love of canoing, his artwork and his own sense of the land. Bill Mason also uses the film as a commentary on the link between his God and nature and the vast array of beautiful canvases God created for him to paint. He reflects on some of the early Native Americans sayings and what they may have seen before the modern world changed everything. The film features breathtaking visuals and exciting whitewater footage, with a musical score by Bruce Cockburn. I really enjoyed the music. If you have 87 minutes to kill on a rainy day, this is an excellent film to watch. Interestingly, the film received a rating of 8.1 out of 10.

Exploring Yellowstone’s wildlife migrations through Science and Art

This next film I also really enjoyed. It documents never before followed migration of Yellowstone's Elk herds over high mountain trails to winter pastures at lower elevations. My only disappointment in the film is that it just wasn't long enough. Could have followed this for hours more. Below are a a photo and couple of paragraphs from the story's link.

Arthur Middleton treks through Yellowstone. (Photo by Joe Riis)

"A new film produced by a UC Berkeley professor takes viewers on an incredible journey with elk herds on their migration from Wyoming’s ranch lands to Yellowstone’s high-alpine meadows.

The film, Elk River, is directed by filmmaker Jenny Nichols and Joe Riis and produced by Berkeley’s Arthur Middleton, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. Middleton teamed up with Riis, who is also a photographer, and artist James Prosek to follow these remarkable ungulates on their journey as they trek over steep mountain passes and ford treacherous river crossings. Along the way, this band of explorers meets backcountry guides, cattle ranchers, and the occasional grizzly bear whose lives are intricately tied to the fate of the elk and other migratory ungulates that live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Watch the film below."

Not sure if many people actually saw the true story docu-drama, "The Straight Story," which starred Richard Farnsworth who plays Alvin Straight who is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek), a kind woman with a mental disability in a town called Laurens in western Iowa. When Alvin hears that his estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) has a stroke. Alvin makes up his mind to go visit him and hopefully make amends before he dies. Because Alvin's legs and eyes are too impaired for him to receive a driving license, he hitches a trailer to his recently purchased thirty-year-old John Deere 110 Lawn Mower Tractor, having a maximum speed of about 5 miles per hour, and sets off on the 240 mile journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin. This video below isn't the movie, but one of my favourite pieces played as it's theme throughout the adventure.

The music by Angelo Badalamenti is a kind of eulogy in slowness. I'm always accused of liking films that are slow. Not so much action. But this music is so soothing to me because of it's beautiful farm scenery for which I am so familiar with back there in northeastern Iowa where I sspent alot of summer youth and inlater years Fall and Winters. The music couple with visuals bring back the fresh fragrance of the land, sound of grain elevators, smell of home cooking at those small town cafes who still cook from scratch and the neighbourly culture of people to strangers which is lacking in today's hate filled world. Well, for me anyway, it's a kind of relaxing escape I play once in a while. 😑

"Welcome to the Huell Howser California’s Gold Archive, a special collection of Huell Howser’s entire California’s Gold television series, presented by Chapman University."

"Search for favorite episodes by entering key words in the search box. You can also look at episodes by series topic, such as Missions, Palm Springs or Water. Or, you can search by date of the episodes."

"Howdy and have fun"

The Huell Hower "California's Gold" video episodes (and there are 100s of them) are another way of pleasant wholesome escape. They allow you to view places you'd never thought of being interested in visiting before. In the old days before electronics when I lived up in the San Jacinto Mountains, I subscribed to the Arizona Highways magazine and often would take trips to places I had read about. The Huell Howser programs can inspire the same spirit of adventure. I'll post more interesting videos and subject matter within this post as time goes on, but for now these three will provide quite a lot of healthy entertainment time away from all the present activist violent protests, irrespective of the ideological politically driven cause behind them.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

As thousands of people descend on Southern California's wildflower fields, the impact is evident as stands of flowers are flattened by selfie-seekers, instagram celebrities and new trails through the flowers are created daily

Unprecedented crowds eager to snap up those photos of the California's super bloom have damaged a popular wildflower trail so badly that it is now closed indefinitely. The Wildflower Trail is located at Diamond Valley Reservoir in Riverside County just south from the city of Hemet California is currently concrete barrier blocked after patches of the stunning wildflowers were trampled into oblivion. The Metropolitan Water District, which maintains the area said the primary problem is that people are walking off-trail to take that prize winning hope it goes viral photo among all the wildflowers. Environmental specialists brought in to assess the damage noted bare patches and flattened flowers like the California Poppies above. Here is the link to th entire story:

When people start pioneering a trail, people behind them follow. And before you know it, they think they’re on a legitimate trail,” Wendy Picht (Environmental Specialist for MWD) said. “So it’s up to us to make sure they have the information to know where the trail is and where they can and can’t go.”

Wendy Picht and Alex Marks have started putting up signs that say, clearly, “Stay on the trail." They also are tilling compacted soil and may re-seed bare areas with native wildflower seeds. In addition, Metropolitan Water District is placing staff along the trail to make sure people aren’t traipsing into the reserve. A half-mile section of the most heavily trampled area remains closed.

Photo - Andrew Cullen

I don't imagine this is the kind of instragram fame thesewildflower enthusiats were hoping for in this News Report

Selfies vrs Selfless ??? & Doin' it for the "Likes" ???

“It’s sometimes nice to see yourself in a really nice picture with a really cool background,” said Robin Kopf, who was trying to get her friend Christina Barrett, who was sitting cross-legged in a patch of poppies, to pose. The girls had driven two-hours from West L.A. in Barrett’s mom’s minivan with a group of their friends from high school.

But in order to get the picture, Kopf and Barrett had flattened a patch of poppies. They seemed to feel badly about it.

“I don’t want to crush them,” Barrett said.

“They seem pretty resilient,” Kopf said, looking over her shoulder at the poppies. “Lots of people are doing this.”

Jonathan Pong of Glendale and a friend were climbing an informal trail up a steep slope covered in poppies and lupines. Pong said he knew he was supposed to stay on the trail, but couldn't resist. "But we tried very hard not to touch any of the flowers," he said. "And I think most people do that, but when you have a little too many [people], they probably get trampled."

======================================

Very Interesting Read on Selfie Obsession & Social Networking Sites

It's okay to stop and smell the Roses, just don't stomp and obliterate them 'Godzilla' !!!

Back in 2014 I wrote a series of articles about this region's (western Riverside County) flora as seen through the eyes of both Spanish Explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and Fray (Friar) Pedro Font both of whom recorded the details of massive wildflower displays in their journals. Everywhere they went they seemed to give special prominance to this. How could they not ? The first references of wildflowers started in the Terwilliger area of Anza Valley, thereafter venturing through Bautista Canyon, next through the Hemet & San Jacinto Valley all the way to Mystic Lake near Moreno Valley. The journals first meant a lot to me way back in 1981 (I was encouraged to read it by a US Forest Service employee - Steve Raybould) where I went to the Riverside County Library (no such thing as internet then) and checked out the diary to read about what the area was once like. For me it was my early motivation to explore the area in detail the actual physical geographical locations which back in the early 1980s was not yet insanely developed at that time, but pretty wild with only a few farms and ranches. Diamond Valley Reservoir wasn't even there. The road from Hwy 79 to Sage Rd was called Newport Road. Mostly open range with a couple of dairies. Here are the links to posts about the journals I created back in 2014, but I would encourage FIRST anyone who is genuinely interested to go online and read both Anza's and Font's own journals about what they saw for yourself. Don't take my word! 😏

Word of caution about the above site. It's fascinating and full of incredible information and commentary. There should also be a glossary of terms and expressions (idioms) used by Anza and Font because much of the words or expression are not used anymore. The links below are from my perspective as I'm keen as to how the natural world looked back then. I actually quote more on relevant paragraph quotes that include natural world observations and leave much of the human politics, economics and land aquisition for the Spanish Empire out of it. Although this survey for the Spanish empire expansion is why they wrote about the natural world as their surveyed and documented all natural resourves such as timber, water sources, agricultural potential, etc. So below are my thoughts and observations. As long as my posts are, I didn't reveal the half of what I know because people today quite simply have got very short attention spans. Nevertheless, Enjoy! 😵

This next post is especially interesting because it focusses on the subject of the once (now almost gone) largest and most extensive vernal pool complexes in Southern California which are now mostly all gone in Hemet, Diamond & Menifee Valleys. These breath taking pools and accompanying wildflower mega-blooms are now just a part of the historical past:

Image is western Hemet Valley

This massive flower display are Goldfields which are now paved over for development and progress